EDITORIAL: Graduation ceremonies should stay in county

When Middle Tennessee State University officials realized a few years ago that Murphy Center no longer would accommodate all of its graduates at one commencement, it did not contact the folks at the University of Tennessee to book the Thompson-Boling Arena.

The Knoxville arena, with twice the seating capacity of Murphy Center, probably could accommodate an entire MTSU commencement, but such an arrangement would have been an embarrassment for a university working to gain national and international recognition and an inconvenience for the graduates' families and friends, many of whom live in Middle Tennessee.

MTSU officials decided, instead, to divide the commencement into two ceremonies to accommodate everyone who wanted to attend.

Rutherford County Schools would have been wise to have made a similar decision in regard to high school commencements for 2014 since Murphy Center will be unavailable for the ceremonies because of renovation work.

The decisions to move most of the high school graduations in 2014 to Williamson County and one to the Grand Ole Opry House in Davidson County are an embarrassment for a county that is trying to bill itself as an ideal location for state and regional conferences and for corporate headquarters.

They also pose an inconvenience for a lot of families who may find it difficult to make trips out of county to see relatives and friends graduate.

Owners of area eateries also should be upset. How many graduation dinners or parties now will be in Williamson County or Davidson County rather than Rutherford County?

A division of a commencement into more than one ceremony may not have been the best solution, but on a one-time basis, it would have posed fewer difficulties than moves out of county.

Most families in 2014 will go to Williamson County, often viewed as this county's job-creation nemesis, and some families will go to the Grand Ole Opry House.

The Central Magnet School decision has generated the most discussion and has an unfortunate tinge of "elitism" to it. Although no tax dollars are going to the site cost, a bill of more than $10,000 is a little extravagant at a time when many in the county still are recovering from the Great Recession.

Central Magnet graduates deserve all the honors they are earning, and the community should celebrate their achievements.

That celebration and all of the accolades for those in the Class of 2014, however, would be much sweeter in the boundaries of Rutherford County.

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EDITORIAL: Graduation ceremonies should stay in county

When Middle Tennessee State University officials realized a few years ago that Murphy Center no longer would accommodate all of its graduates at one commencement, it did not contact the folks at the